Eligibility: This indie poetry slam is open exclusively to women and femme-identifying poets.  

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24 spots available – first come, first served!

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Poems and Performance:

1) Poems can be on any subject and in any style.

2) Each poet must perform work that they have created.

• Two rounds, 3:10 time limit per poem. Poet's time starts as soon as they speak into the mic or engage with the audience.

• Time penalties: 0.5 points deducted for every 10 seconds over the time limit.

1 point deducted for every 20 sec over the time limit

Disqualified if over 3:30 

The announcement of the time penalty and its consequent deduction will be made by the MC or scorekeeper after all the judges have reported their scores. The judges should not ever be told that a poet went overtime until it is too late for them to adjust their scores.

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Finals Stage Time Limit: An additional 10 seconds is permitted in finals without penalty (up to and including 3:20.00). Starting at 3:20.01, a penalty is automatically deducted from each poet’s overall score. Poets are allowed to repeat ONE poem from their previous bouts for Finals Stage.

Judging: All efforts shall be made to select five judges who will be fair. Competing poets, coaches, and any persons who are associated with a specific poet or group of poets are NOT eligible to judge. Poets will be scored on a 0-10 scale, with 10 being the highest. Judges may use decimal points. Each round, the highest and lowest scores will be dropped, and the remaining three scores will be added together to determine the poet’s final score.

Scoring: Five judges will be pre-selected from the audience. Poets will be scored on a 0-10 scale, with 10 being the highest. Judges may use decimal points. Each round, the highest and lowest scores will be dropped, and the remaining three scores will be added together to determine the poet’s final score.

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Attendance Policy: Bout check-in will happen 15 minutes before start of bout time. If a poet is not there for bout check-in they pull the 1 for the bout. Poets may face elimination if they arrive after the scheduled start time of their bout (they will have a 10 min grace period if they make contact with the bout manager). If no show happens they will be cut from that bout.  

Bouts:

3/26 & 3/27

2 bouts a day 

6 poets per bout

Early Bout: 5:00p / Late Bout: 7:00p

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Bout Draw: 

Bout selection for the Phenomenal Womxn Slam will be conducted through a randomized draw to ensure fairness and transparency for all competing poets. The first official bout draw will take place on March 1st at 4:00 PM PST, streamed live on Spotlight Poetry’s Instagram Live. Poets are encouraged to tune in as bouts are announced in real time and the competition lineup officially takes shape.

Final Stage Elimination structure:  

  - Round 1: 8 poets compete → Top 6 advance.  

  - Round 2: 6 poets compete → Top 3 advance.  

  - Round 3: Final 3 poets compete → Winner is crowned.  

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Final Stage Scoring: Poets will used the same 0-10 scoring system as the previous preliminary bouts. During the first round all 8 finalists will perform. The top 6 finalists with the highest scores in the first round will move onto the second round. During round 2, all the top 6 finalists will perform their poems, only the top 3 finalists with the highest scores in the second round will move onto the final round. During round three, the top three finalists will perform. Their scores from the second round and the third round will be added together and the finalist with the highest score from both round 2 and round 3 will be the Phenomenal Womxn Champion. 

No props, music, or costumes—your words and performance are all you need.